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IBM puts hypervisor in Flash memory

Beats Dell to the virtualisation Flash finishing line

IBM has
unveiled a new server chipset that allows users to run a virtualisation
hypervisor off a USB memory key instead of requiring it to be installed on a
hard drive.

The Flash memory feature is enabled by adding a USB connector to the
motherboard of IBM's new X4 server chipset.

Big Blue unveiled the chipset on Wednesday at a press event marking the
launch of
Intel's
multi-processor quad-core Xeon chips. It is scheduled to ship in October and
will support up to 16 sockets. Intel's 7300 chipset is limited to four sockets.

IBM plans to ship memory keys with a choice of hypervisors, including VMware
ESX, Xen-enabled Linux distributions and Windows Server 2008 with Viridian, once
it is launched some time next year.

The software will be tailored for use on the new systems, making it easier to
set up new servers.

In a simplified view of the IBM system, users could set up new servers by
plugging in a hard drive with their virtual images and booting the server of the
USB drive. The reality, however, will require slightly more customisation.

Jay Bretzman, manager for product marketing at IBM, admitted that the overall
benefits will be limited to setting up new servers.

"You do not get a lot of premium out of the fact that we put it on a USB key,
" Bretzman told
vnunet.com in an
interview. "It is just simplifying the deployment of new servers."

Hypervisors currently have to be installed on a system's hard drive. Users
can plug in the USB tokens into different servers while the virtual images are
kept on the hard drive.

Theoretically, a company could choose to run their virtual systems on a Red
Hat Enterprise Server platform one day, and switch to Windows Server 2008 with
Viridian the next day.

On a desktop computer, running the operating system off Flash memory reduces
system boot time as data is loaded into the system's memory.

But servers do not reboot on a regular basis, so running the hypervisor off
Flash does not offer any major performance gains.

During a keynote at Linuxworld in San Francisco last month, Dell chief
technology officer Kevin Kettler suggested that he too might create servers that
run hypervisors directly off Flash memory. Dell, however, has been sparse on
details.